The hike begins with an easy stroll on a picturesque dirt road. After about half of a mile you turn left onto the trail, which descends towards a stream. After crossing the stream, the trail begins a moderate ascent. It goes through the open col between Haystack and Middle Mountains, then swings left to steeply ascend the pinnacle of Haystack. Great views from the summit of the Mettawee Valley, as well as pastoral New York and Vermont.

Been to quite a few nature viewing spots throughout New York and Vermont and the view from the top of this fairly easy hike is unbeaten. we arrived at 430 pm and reached the summit at 540, we are not the most experienced hikers by any means but the whole hike up and back took about 2 hours, however we rushed back down to beat the darkness and only stayed on the summit for a few minutes. House towards the beginning of the trail has aggressive dogs who chased us down the road after dark once we got closer to the car, owner was outside and heard me screaming at the dogs to go away and did absolutely nothing, couldn't care less, which is sad considering it is legal to carry a registered side arm while hiking, and had I had one I would of likely drawn and fired a warning shot, that's how aggressive these dogs were towards us, chasing us down the road. Would DEFINITELY recommend having some protection because those dogs are nasty and unpredictable and the owners dont care. I shouted towards the house to call of there dogs, only half expecting a reply, and was met with a "F*ck you a*shole" shouted back. we were very nervous, for they were big dogs and it was pretty much pitch black at the time, so we continued with our light aiming behind us watching the dog that had come onto the road to chase us. he would start running at us and I would stop and scream as loud as I could and he'd stop for a second then continue at us. It was to the point I had my pocket knife out and constantly had to watch the dog, turning to scream at it to go away multiple times since it kept running after us, no way owners didn't hear me. They must think they own the trail because of their location. But other than that it was a great experience.

Easy walk up a farm road with Angus cows mooing at you. Trail starts about a 1/4 mile up on the left. Easy walk until you cross the brook, then steep and roots and rocks from there up to the top. Beautiful New York and Southern Green Mountains views.

Great little mountain! You must park along the road and hike up a road to the beginning of the trailhead along a Farmer's property. The first stream bed is riddled with shale and the water clarity is out of control beautiful. The hike is steep but short and the summit has very near 360° views. West Mountain ski center is visible as well as all of Granville and the Mettowee valley. Lake Saint Catherine can be seen behind the trees as you face north. Eastern views show you the road you walked in on and beyond. The lack of light pollution in the Mettowee valley would make this a tremendous hike for stargazing.

I did this hike a few weeks ago, in a thunderstorm. The trail was very well maintained, and not too steep in parts. Although it was pouring down rain, we made it to the top and had great views, except for the fog and rain.

First off note this is not the Haystack in Wilmington, the trail is in Rupert/Pawlet. and the photos are from the 'other' Haystack not this one. Anyway the drive to the trail is is great, classic Vermont farms on route 30. You need to park at end of the road on Waite Hill Road and walk about 1/2 mile to the trail head (obey all the signs). Follow the markers to the top, great 360 views of southern Vermont. Great trail in winter also. Out and back was 3.2 miles and fairly easy.

Very nice trail, decent views at the top no good vistas before then. There is a crain on the trail that marks the turn off to the summit, in addition to trail marker(blue diamond). The main trail continues on to Mt Snow(becomes orange square marker). The weather was so perfect that after topping Mt Haystack) continued on to Mt Snow, the trail to Mt Snow was less used and boggy in parts but not that difficult (moderate).

This is not a loop trail, as part of it is closed off because of the Willinton VT watershed area.